


The Art Of Being Awesome

by carolinecrane



Series: Trains [4]
Category: Glee
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-02
Updated: 2011-05-02
Packaged: 2017-10-18 21:50:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn's just trying to be a good friend. Set between chapters 8 and 9 of Trains.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Art Of Being Awesome

Finn waited until he was alone in his room to fish out his cell phone. He scrolled through his contacts until he found the number he’d programmed into his phone over a year ago, but had never called. Maybe he shouldn’t be calling now either, but he figured he’d want a heads up if something bad was about to happen, so Schue probably would too.

Not that he was sure something bad was going to happen. He’d tried pretty hard to make Burt see that it wasn’t Mr. Schuester’s fault Kurt and Puck had gotten married, and he figured once Burt got some sleep and maybe talked to Finn’s mom some more...okay, so he’d probably still be pretty pissed. His only son had gotten married, and to a guy he technically wasn’t even dating, and even Finn could see where that might be kind of a surprise.

But Puck and Kurt seemed pretty into each other, and Finn sort of hoped it worked out. At least if they stayed together he’d always know that he could get along with his brother’s _and_ his best friend’s boyfriends – husbands...whatever – since they were the same guy and all.

Finn listened to the phone ringing, wondering what ring tone Schue would use for him while he waited for the line to connect. Not that he expected Schue to have a special ring tone just for him. As far as Finn knew, Schue didn’t even have his number. He’d never called, anyway, not that he had any more reason to call Finn than Finn had to call him.

He’d thought about going out and getting drunk once or twice, just to see if Schue really would come pick him up. Only he never had, because he knew without making the call that Schue would do it. He’d show up and he’d give Finn a ride, make sure he got home safely and he wouldn’t even complain about Finn dragging him away from whatever he was doing. And whoever he was doing it with.

That last part was the thought that always stopped Finn from calling. He couldn’t say why, exactly, but for some reason it bugged him to think about Mr. Schue having a whole life outside of school that Finn didn’t get to be a part of. For awhile he thought that maybe it was like thinking about his mom and Burt having sex: he knew they _did_ it, but he didn’t want to know about it.

But it didn’t bother him to think about Coach or Mrs. Pillsbury-Howell or Principal Figgins having a life outside of school. He didn’t even get weirded out at the thought of what Coach Sylvester did in her spare time. Whenever he wondered what Schue was up to, though, it left him with a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach and he always had to sing whatever song they were working on to himself until the thought went away.

He was humming “Push the Button” when the line finally connected, and when Mr. Schue’s voice said, “Hello?” in Finn’s ear he blushed and sat down on the edge of his bed.

“Hey, Mr. Schue. It’s Finn. Hudson. Is this a bad time?”

“Finn?” Schue’s voice sounded sort of funny, like he’d been running or something. “No, it’s...I was just in the shower. I had to run for the phone. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I mean, I’m okay, I’m not calling you for a ride or anything. I know that’s why you gave us your number and all, but it would be kind of lame of me to be calling you for a ride when I just saw you like three hours ago.”

“Finn,” Schue said, and he sounded more like himself now. “I’m not upset that you called. I’m curious, though.”

“Oh, right. I just wanted to give you a heads up. I tried to tell him it wasn’t your fault, that you trusted us not to get into trouble and Kurt and Puck are both eighteen anyway, so it wasn’t like there was much you could have done even if you were there. I mean, maybe Kurt wouldn’t have gotten drunk, and then he probably wouldn’t have gotten married, but still, he can’t really blame that on you.”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line, and Finn pictured Schue resting his hand on the back of his neck like he did when he was frustrated with Finn’s lame dancing and trying not to show it. “I assume you’re talking about Burt.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Schue said, and it sort of sounded like he was laughing, so that was probably a good sign.

“Anyway, I tried to tell him that you couldn’t do anything to stop them, but I don’t know if it did any good. He seemed pretty determined to talk to Principal Figgins tomorrow.”

Another deep breath, and Finn pictured Schue running a hand over his face this time. He remembered the way Schue had looked in the hotel room the night before, head tilted back against the wall while he drained his beer. Finn remembered the way his Adam’s apple moved when he swallowed, and the flash of surprise in his eyes when he looked over to find Finn watching him.

But he was just looking, so he didn’t bother to look away when Schue caught him. Instead he just grinned, and after a second Schue let out a little laugh and turned back to the game. Finn had no idea what he was laughing about, but it made his stomach feel kind of weird, like it was floating around inside him.

“Finn,” Schue said, and when Finn realized he had his eyes closed he blinked them open again.

“Yeah?”

“Exactly how much does Burt know about this weekend?”

“Just about the wedding,” Finn answered. He stretched out on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and resting a hand on his stomach to see if he could feel the weird fluttering sensation from the outside. “He doesn’t know Kurt was drunk or anything.”

“I imagine he’ll find out if he speaks to Figgins,” Schue said, and he sounded so bummed out about it that Finn sort of wished he’d driven over to Schue’s place to give him the news in person. “We’re going to have to talk about that bill you guys ran up with the minibar tomorrow.”

Finn winced at the vague memory of drinking games and porn. “Sorry about that, Mr. Schue. We were already kind of drunk when we got back to the room, I guess we just weren’t thinking.”

“It’s okay, Finn,” Schue said, and it almost sounded like he was smiling. Finn’s heart did a weird little tap dance, and he put his hand over his chest. The last time his heart beat like that he’d been making out with Quinn -- or maybe it was Rachel -- and he wondered if it meant the same thing when Schue made his heart race. Except Schue wasn’t even in the same room with him, and they definitely weren’t making out, so it couldn’t.

“Listen,” Schue said, and Finn blinked and tried to focus on the words Schue was saying and not the way his dick sort of took an interest when he thought about making out with Schue. “I think it’s probably for the best if we keep the fact that you stayed with me this weekend between us.”

“Yeah, sure,” Finn said, his hand leaving his chest as soon as he realized he was kind of feeling himself up while he talked to Mr. Schuester. “But it’s not like we did anything wrong. I mean, you were just looking out for me because you’re awesome.”

For a few seconds Schue didn’t say anything, and Finn was starting to wonder if maybe the call had dropped when he heard another little breath in his ear. “Thanks, Finn. You’re pretty amazing yourself.”

It wasn’t the first time Mr Schuester had ever paid him a compliment. It wasn’t even the first time Mr. Schuester had paid him _that_ compliment, but for some reason hearing it whispered in his ear like that made Finn’s whole face go kind of warm, and he found himself grinning up at the ceiling. He wanted to think of something else to say, just to keep Schue on the phone for awhile longer, but before he came up with anything Schue was talking again.

“Listen, Finn, thanks for calling. It wasn’t necessary, but it was considerate of you. I appreciate it.”

“No problem,” Finn said. “What are friends for, right?”

Schue let out another little laugh, and Finn found himself grinning at nothing again. “Go get some sleep, Finn. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Night, Mr. Schue,” Finn said. He closed his phone, then changed his mind and opened it again. It took a second to connect to the internet, then he surfed to the available ring tones and scrolled through the options until he found what he was looking for. He was sort of surprised to find “Push the Button” on the list, but he grinned when he spotted it and hit the button to buy it.

Once it was downloaded he opened his contact list and found the listing for Mr. Schuester. Finn frowned at the name for a second, then shrugged against the mattress and hit ‘edit’. He backspaced over the ‘Mr.’ and typed ‘Will’, then he scrolled through his ringtones until he found the new one. Once he’d saved Schue’s new ringtone he grinned and dropped the phone next to him on the bed, then he closed his eyes and pictured the funny little smile Schue had given him when he caught Finn looking at him in the hotel room.

They hadn’t been doing anything wrong. Finn knew he was right about that, but when he pictured Schue’s face and his stomach did that thing again, Finn thought he understood why Will didn’t want anyone to hear about it. And he didn’t get why it mattered, because in a few weeks Finn wouldn’t be his student anymore, and then they could be friends for real, if Schue wanted. And he really hoped Schue wanted that, because Finn definitely did.


End file.
